Next Pharma Summit Vienna 2024 - Summary & Insights

I recently attended the NEXT Pharma Summit in Vienna. This was my fourth participation in the Next Pharma events, and as always, it was an excellent opportunity to meet familiar faces and new, interesting people.

I had the opportunity to moderate a panel where experts such as Cicek Aydin (Tilley), MBA from EMD Serono (also known as Merck), Anna Hessenbruch from Novo Nordisk, and Shima Healey from Takeda who shared their insights on Enhancing Customer Experience, from Strategy to Tactics.

If you want, you can watch the recording.

There were many other exciting and insightful presentations, and I thought it would be great to share my notes with you. There might be some interesting nuggets of information that you can use in your work.

Here are the main key takeaways from the speeches I managed to see.

1. Omnichannel is dead; long live OPTIchannel

Dario Safaric , the host of Next Pharma, started strong with a presentation about why omnichannel might already be dead, as it’s not a doable strategy for most pharmaceutical companies.

Many people I’ve talked to seem to find his point interesting. Some thing it is just another buzzword from a consultant (this one is funny Philip Vyt ) or just the proper implementation of omnichannel but with another definition. I will let you draw the conclusion for yourself.

This image speaks for what OPTIchannel could mean:?

2. Foundation of Proper Customer Experience (CX)

If you want to deliver great customer experiences, you need:

• Data-Driven Insights: The quality and utilization of data are paramount. Clean, accessible data empowers organizations to make informed decisions and drive impactful strategies.
• Leadership Alignment and Team Synergy: Unlocking the full potential of data and technology requires a strong foundation of trust, shared goals, and effective collaboration.

3. GenAI: A Game-Changer for Personalized Medicine and HCP Experiences

Generative AI (GenAI) is being embraced at an unprecedented pace, with C-suite executives prioritizing its potential to drive profitable growth.

But striking the right balance between human expertise and AI capabilities is still a work in progress.

Transitioning from a "trust and verify" model—where AI output is reviewed by humans after deployment—to a "verify and trust" approach can optimize workflows and enhance decision-making.?

In this new model, the AI’s reliability is rigorously validated upfront through careful testing, tuning, and extensive verification before operating in high-stakes environments. Only when the AI’s accuracy and safety are established does it earn the team’s trust to operate semi-autonomously, with human oversight that remains involved but less intensive.

This approach can allow pharma companies to utilize GenAI in more customer-facing environments, such as HCP Portals via chatbots, AI-powered search, and so on, while also minimizing the risks of AI such as hallucinations, bias, compliance violations, and unpredictability of outputs.

4. Real-World AI Applications

A few speakers shared some of the ways they started using AI:

• Carlos Eid, MD from Novartis shared how AI aids in summarizing meetings, grammar checks, and HCP sentiment analysis.
• Romika Bhowmick from Teva is using AI to boost employee productivity with tools like Copilot to foster critical thinking and creativity.
• Ozgun (Oz) Demir from Genentech/Roche emphasized the need for actionable insights from diverse data sources and the power of GenAI in generating personalized content.

5. The Future of AI in Pharma

While AI offers exciting possibilities, focusing on tangible business improvements is crucial rather than chasing every new trend. Key considerations if we want to make AI a success in pharma include:

• Responsible AI implementation with human oversight
• Engaging regulatory teams early in AI adoption
• Using AI where it can deliver the best results, such as in operational tracking, predictive forecasting, HCP engagement, and reputation management.

6. Agentic AI: The Next Frontier

As we look to the future, Agentic AI (also known as agentive AI or autonomous agents) is emerging as a promising technology. These role-based agents can automate complex business processes in collaboration with humans.?

Basically, to improve the quality of the output of an AI model, you use two AI agents with different inputs that will challenge each other until the best possible outcome is achieved.

7. Enhancing Customer Experience: Strategy to Tactics

A key reminder from the conference: It's critical to have the right strategies before diving into tactics. It's best to shift the perspective from a brand-centric approach to a customer-centric one, always putting the customer's needs at the center.

In closing

The conference underscored the transformative power of AI in reshaping the pharmaceutical industry. By embracing innovation, prioritizing data, and fostering ethical AI practices, pharma companies can unlock new opportunities and deliver exceptional value to patients and healthcare providers.

What insight do you find the most interesting?